Two Bashkir Bloggers Put Under House Arrest

Two bloggers in Bashkortostan recently released from jail have been put under house arrest, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.

The Center for Bashkortostan's ethnic Tatar leader Ildar Gabdrafikov and historical essayist Sergei Orlov were released from jail on August 14.

They, along with businessman and opposition figure Nikolai Shvetsov, historian Igor Kuchumov, and activist Konstantin Nesterov were accused of propagating extremism and interconfessional hatred through the expression of their ideas on the ufagub.com website, which is frequently critical of Bashkortostan's government.

The whereabouts of Nesterov are unknown, while Shvetsov and Kuchumov were released from detention on August 4 as well.